Tag Archives: economists

Like Yahoo and Google, Uber offers access to the kind of data that, as recently as 10 years ago, an economist could only dream of. Uber’s more than 3 million drivers provide roughly 15 million trips, globally, every day. Uber’s researchers can test vital questions about driver pay, customer satisfaction, and urban transit with tiny…

Let us remember that economists are evaluated on how intelligent they sound, not on a scientific measure of their knowledge of reality. Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets (Kindle Locations 1684-1685).

This is one of the reasons I am a big proponent of replication and transparency in what we do. How is it that economists, working in good faith, wind up with dubious results? To start, they can overanalyze the data. Modern computers spit out statistical regressions so fast that researchers can fit some conclusion around…

Pethokoukis: Many progressive Dems here in the states, including Vermont senator Bernie sanders who is running for president, have argued that America should model itself on Scandinavia and its “egalitarian social democracies.” What do you think we are getting right when we in the USA talk about Sweden and Scandinavia, and what are we getting…

The economist Justin Wolfers, writing for the New York Times Upshot, reports that economists increasingly outnumber other social scientists in mentions in the both the Times and — even more — in the Congressional Record. About 1% of Times stories use the word “economist,” more than three-times as often as they write “sociologist.” Here’s his…